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The minister hopes that work on site will be completed today yet, provided that nothing collapses again. The situation in the building still remains very dangerous to the rescuers, he said.

Kozlovskis urged the public not to speculate about the possibility that more lives could have been saved if rescuers from Russia were called in. The public should not underestimate the efforts of the State Fire and Rescue Service – as many people as possible were working at the scene, and there was simply no room for more rescuers, he said.

Besides Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Polish and Estonian rescue services had also offered assistance to Latvia.

Previously Kozlovskis said that, based on coroner inquest reports, most of the 52 people who lost their lives as the Maxima roof collapsed died instantly. The last survivor was pulled out from the rubble at 1:28 a.m. on Friday.

The minister went on to say that there was very much contradictory information circulating about the tragedy these days, but most of this information is mere speculation.

Rescuers have completed combing the zone in the "Maxima XX" store in Zolitude, where it was thought more victims could be located, but found no one, LTV1 reports on November 24^th (evening), quoting Ilze Petersone-Godmane, the interior ministry's state secretary.